AUT Grad wins Australia’s most prestigious graphic design award

Communication Design graduate Alistair McCready has won Australia’s single top graphic design award.

McCready’s submission ‘Type as Monument’ was awarded the Pinnacle Award at the Australian Graphic Design Awards (AGDA).

This is the first time the Pinnacle Award has ever been awarded to a student.

The Bachelor of Art and Design honours alumnus submitted two related entries, a typeface called Kahu, designed specifically to work well on historical monuments, and a book ‘Type as Monument’ created to document the processes and development of the Kahu typeface.

To develop the typeface, McCready travelled across New Zealand photographing and taking rubbings of War Memorials and other types of memorials. He then digitally recreated those letterforms, adding extra letters where necessary.

This is not the first time the industry has recognised McCready’s work. Kahu and Typeface received Gold Awards at the 2017 Best Awards.

His supervisor Senior Lecturer Dr Peter Gilderdale said McCready’s achievement was well deserved.

He says, “Alistair exemplifies everything an AUT student should be. He has endless curiosity, pushes way beyond the obvious, is meticulous about his craft and has a massive respect for New Zealand and its history.”

“He is both kind and humble, and contributed hugely to the culture of our Communication Design department, supporting fellow students and liaising with staff. It’s hard to think of a better role model for our students.”

Three other Communication Design students also took out distinctions at the AGDA. They are Phoebe Ellis, Stephanie Zwerink and Ella Dobson.

In total, AUT received five Distinctions, making AUT the most institution who took out the most amount of awards in 2016 and 2017.